Road & Track (1-year auto-renewal)

Bottom-line: Within its 130 or so glossy pages I have found a home, a resting place from which I can gleam my needed automotive knowledge.

Like a lot of middle-aged men I am a car guy. I eat and drink--more or less--the elixir of horsepower, torque, RPM's, painted wheels, ergonomic cockpits, and colored sheet metal. I can recite long lists of carlines and their varying specifications. At various times in the last five years I have subscribed to and devoured three of the nation's most popular car magazines: Motor Trend, Automobile, and Car & Driver. But, I recently gave up my subscription to Automobile and received a $5.00 off coupon from Magazines.com via e-mail; I replaced it with "Road & Track Magazine," published monthly by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., Inc.

Like most car magazines, "Road & Track Magazine" is full of glossy, colorful, pictures and serious well written articles, car comparisons, and long-term road tests, but the magazine has little to distinguish itself from its brethren. I used to read "Road & Track Magazine" back in my twenties, and while the magazine has moved itself smartly into the 21st century, the basic formula that made the magazine fun and informative back in the 1980's remains virtually unchanged.

"Road & Track Magazine" does an excellent job of covering the national (American) and International car scene. And the reaches far-a-field to bring readers the off-beat, the exotic and the really expensive, but fear not the Chevrolet Volt's, Suzuki Swift's and Toyota Corolla's of the world also find a place inside the glossy pages of "Road & Track Magazine." And the magazine does this is in a format that is easy to follow and extremely inviting.

For instance in the June 2010 issue "Road & Track Magazine" featured the previews/road tests of the following cars: Jaguar XJ, Audi R8 Spyder; Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 vs. Nissan GTR vs. Porsche 911 Turbo; plus a long-term test wrap-up of the Acura TL SH-AWD, as well as a features write-up on the Suzuki Swift, Mazda Demio, and Toyota iQ. Add to these two very well written and equally as comprehensive competition articles: Electric Boogaloo -Tesla vs. Lotus, and Formula 1, Then & Now, and you have receipt for the most useful automobile magazine in the country.

Because of its name "Road & Track Magazine" does seem to cover the racing circuit more than it fellows, which would be fine if I followed Formula 1, NASCAR, and notable figures from that world, but I don't so I tend to skip over those articles.

Interspersed between these nuggets of auto knowledge are other articles that deal with esoteric but informative tidbits from the automotive arena. For instance the same issue that brought us the above mentioned articles offered up an excellent 2-page article on the past, present and future of the spark plug! Not exactly need to know information, but for anyone with a keen interest in the internal combustion engine--like me--this article hit the spot.

When the final page is turned is "Road & Track Magazine" different enough from the other two car periodicals I read to renew my subscription? In a word: no. While I certainly enjoy reading the magazines various articles and columns there just isn't enough between the glossy covers to justify renewing the subscription. I'm just not into the auto racing scene and "Road & Track Magazine" is big into Formula 1, NASCAR and other racing related themes.

For raw, general automotive new "Road & Track Magazine" is not as good as Motor Trend, Automobile, or Car & Driver. But with a subscription cost of only $9.97 (or less, over at Magazines.com) per year, you can afford to grab 12 issues and make up your own mind.

Gran Turismo 5 gave me the high end car bug. Now I can't get enough of supercars, muscle cars and road/gt/endurance racing. Checking out different magazines to keep me abreast of what I was interested in lead me to Road & Track. I almost went with Motor Trend, but the reviews here convinced me to go with R&T and I am so glad I did. The first issue I got featured the new 302 Boss Mustang (which I love) and the previous month's issue was also sent with the new version of the McLaren featured along with news from the recent Geneva auto show. Heaven. A letter to the editor sums up the kind of reader this magazine appeals to. It thanked the editor for making the section, of a previous issue, on hybrid and electric cars easily distinguishable from the rest of the articles. He thanked them because that showed him what section to avoid, lol, with the suggestion for future issues to make news on hybrids and alternative cars a pullout section he could easily throw out. One of the really neat features in the magazine are codes your smart phone can read to access cool content. And they have a app for live coverage of an upcoming auto show for smart phones. So, they have also kept up with new technology and many articles include web addresses for videos and more info. In all, I could not ask for more!

They also have articles on racing with guest editorials from drivers of different series like Grand Am and FIA GT1.

They have a free phone app and many of the articles have icons you can scan with your smart phone that links to videos and other content from them. You can also access this extra content via their website.

FYI: I got my subscription right when Amazon said it would start arriving.

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I have subscribed to Road & Track for three decades. If I could only get one car magazine, this would be the one. It is the least biased, and unlike most car mags, it still has a "test summary" at the end so you can quickly compare with other models from past issues.

If you want to keep up with all the newest models, long-term tests, and a few interesting/educational articles along the way, IMO R&T has the best coverage and most comprehensive articles. Also, it is one of the few remaining magazines to publish slalom results. Motor Trend, for example, publishes their useless "Figure Eight" number. Another plus is that R&T has a wider format than other car mags. This allows wider pages that have bigger pictures, and it sits flatter when you read it. About the only nit I can list is that they're starting to become more like other car magazines and include cutesy/trite expressions/flowery commentary in their articles.

If you are even remotely inclined to purchase just one or two per year at a news stand, just do yourself a favor and subscribe. Even the 'meh' issues you can always pass to co-workers or the lunch room. I always look forward to getting mine in my mailbox. For less than a dollar, it's a great deal.

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I first picked up an issue of R&T at the news stand when I was in the sixth grade. I was always into models, Lego's, drafting and other technical hobbies and the detail sheet in R&T's reviews fascinated me with all the stats and the cutaway drawing of the vehicleit still looks very similar today, thirteen years later due to the great layout.

The journalists, photographers, artists and editors at Road & Track are leaps & bounds ahead of the staff at MotorTrend or Car&Driver (I subscribe to all three, but if I could have only one it would easily be R&T). They frequently have guest writers and racers help with articles and reviews, which is a plus. And one of the things I like most is very little SUV/Truck coverage.

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